Long shadow of history: civilian control and effectiveness of armed forces in Poland

Abstract

The paper is based on the results of a longitudinal study tracing the challenges that joining NATO created for the armed forces and the defense policies of Poland. Examining the evolution of civil-military relations (CMR) in Poland, before and after it joined NATO we were seeking, whether those relations are copies, templates, patches or thresholds of established “Western” institutions. We also asked whether the Polish armed forces can be seen to accept democratic civilian control behaviourally, attitudinally and constitutionally. We conducted three series of face-to-face semi-structured interviews in 1996, 2006 and 2015–2016, using a proprietary questionnaire with a set of open questions. It was possible to interview 41 people, forming a sizeable part of Polish key decision makers and experts involved in the process of NATO enlargement. Findings were validated with the results of archival work on primary sources of Polish military doctrine, including the laws and the published statements of military concepts, practices and procedure. A critical review of the existing, mainly English-language literature of the subject was used to broaden the perspective. The results of our investigation show that Poland has accepted templates of CMR, which indicates that, although their adoption was voluntary, it was only approximate. They also suggest that the Polish military has accepted civilian control constitutionally and behaviourally but its attitudinal acceptance is still incomplete.